Golf Lesson - How to Play Bunker

Marc: Hello! Welcome back to "golf is hard TV - the golf show for the rest of us". Been a couple of weeks since we filmed a couple of episodes. Dave: Oh yeah! This is what it's all about. Out here, beautiful day, and we are going to work on your favorite part of the game. Marc: My favorite part of the game, we are standing in a bunker right now. You are going to see in a minute. I am pretty terrified to be in the bunker grounds with you. Dave: I think that's a common thought and that's -- what I want to ask you is, what would you be happy with in the bunker as far as results? Marc: If I am close to the green, somewhere on the green basically. Out of the bunker, somewhere on the green, frankly even if it was on the rough, on the edge, I still happy. Dave: So out of the bunker. Marc: Just out of the bunker. Get me out. Dave: The reason I ask is, I would like everyone, all of our viewers to think about their bunker play and put it in three categories. Marc: Okay. Dave: Depending on what kind of success you would be happy with or what your goal is. Number one is, out of the bunker. Marc: Yeah. Dave: If I just get it out of the bunker, I am happy. Marc: Definitely. Dave: So you get to be pretty good at that, now you are getting it out consistently. Now you want to get it out of the bunker and on the green. So it's kind of like level 2. Like you said, you would be happy right up here in the rough but you are out of the bunker. Marc: Yeah. Dave: So good because this is going to start to relieve a lot of that anxiety, just like, hey, I am out. I am happy. And of course when you listen to some of the tips that we are going to talk about here, you are going to be able to get it out consistently. The last thing which now applies more to better players out on and close to the hole. Because you want to start to get it up and down out of the bunker when you get to be pretty good at it. Marc: Yeah, up and down is not something that I am used to, up and down is more something like when I go on the trampling with the kids. Dave: Yeah. Right, right. Up and down by the way, some people on -- golf commentators trying to call it up and in, up and in is not working. Johnny Miller, forget it, it's not sticking, up and down. And up and down out of the bunker. [Voice Overlap] Marc: -- on CBS. We will just, we will redefine it. Dave: Exactly. Well, it's always been up and down, so we are going to keep it. Marc: We are keeping. [Voice Overlap] is all about old school golf. Dave: Yeah, that's what it is. Marc: Alright. Dave: Tradition, we are not breaking tradition. We are not going to redefine the game. Anyway, that's off track. You know when I head with all stuff. Marc: Yeah, maybe. Dave: So bunker play, so three things, out, out and on, or out on and close. Where are you? You can decide that. So, here we go. Let's watch Marc hit a few shots here. Okay, great. So here is Marc in the bunker and let's talk a little bit about the type of shot that he has, and let's see if I can go up and survey this here a little bit. We have got a bunker shot, we are going to be aiming for that little flag right there. We got about thirty-ish feet of green. And Marc is down in the bunker which he is -- his head at about the level of the putting surface. It really is a matter of too much, it's not incredibly deep but you would probably call this your average bunker shot. So he got it out, so he is happy with that. Okay, so here is the shot, Marc has a bunker shot here, he has got about 30 feet of green, we are going for that small flag. And we would probably call this your average length bunker shot. Marc: I am out again. Dave: Alright, so he is out. So he accomplished his goal of getting it out of the bunker. Alright, we are good, so we just saw Marc hit the shot. Let's do one more. I going to give him a little tip here. Not going to tell him why, we are going to talk about it. Go ahead and open that face up even more, flatten that face right even more, have you ever had a shot with the face that will -- Marc: Never, that feels ridiculous. Dave: Good. Remember that -- Marc: Good. Dave: No pain, no gain. This -- really what this is going to do is this is going to make it a fly higher. So I can send it off to the right -- Marc: Okay. Dave: But just take your normal full swing and have confidence with that. Marc: Hey! How about that? Dave: Nice. Out and on. Okay, good. Try it again. Now aim -- open your stance about 45 degrees to the left to the hole and aim at about 10 feet left to the hole, We will talk about that too. Marc: Got opened enough? Dave: No, not enough, more, even more. Good. Marc: Really? Dave: Just take your full -- Marc: That feels really awkward. Here we go. Oh My God! It went out, it's almost in the hole. Wow! Dave: Folks -- Marc: How about that?